2023 Endorsements for Knoxville Municipal Elections

When we endorsed both Indya Kincannon and Amelia Parker back in 2019, we said we had an opportunity to create a City Government that was seriously focused on climate and the environment.  We can’t claim that the City has done all we wanted them to do since then, but compared to previous administrations, the difference is huge.  Check out the extensive list of Indya Kincannon’s accomplishments below.  There are enormous challenges faced by environmental champions in Tennessee politics, and a lot of them, like the state’s preemption laws, seriously limit the ability of city governments to create real change.  If we can help these four win their seats, however, we’ll have a far stronger hand than ever before.  Debbie Helsley came surprisingly close to victory last year in her race for County Mayor, and we narrowly lost creating a progressive majority on the school board.  Every election cycle we’re making gains.  Knocking on doors and phone banking really helps.  In fact, it’s hard to imagine a more effective way to protect the planet than helping environmentalists win office in local elections.  These four extraordinary individuals merit your energetic support.  Let’s get them elected!

Cameron Brooks – City Council At-Large Seat A Bringing people out of poverty and into the middle class is a major concern for Cameron Brooks, so in conversation he’s not prone to touting his environmental achievements.  That’s fine with us, because a deeper dive into his core issues reveals a lively concern for the planet and the quality of life for people living on it.  Economic and racial justice are key concerns of the Sierra Club, and that’s where we connected with Cameron.  The leading issues on his website are home ownership for working families, jobs that pay a living wage, support for public education, and affordability.  These concerns date back to his college years at UT, where he became a student leader in the UT Living Wage Campaign.  In response to the intransigence of university officials, he helped found what would later become the United Campus Workers.  Ten years of successful labor organizing led him into politics, in the form of Tennessee’s State Democratic Executive Committee and chairmanship of the Knox County Democratic Party.  This has by no means made him rigidly partisan, though.  He’s ready and willing to reach across party lines if it serves working people and their families.  It’s this concern for the most vulnerable that leads him to champion local environmental measures like community gardens that would help folks living in East Knoxville’s food desert, pollinator gardens in single family residences, and permeable pavements to reduce the risk of flooding in the densely developed urban core.  These concerns may not sound like Cameron’s focused on saving the polar bears, but his support of KUB’s low-income home efficiency upgrades and measures to mitigate the heat islands recently mapped in Knoxville show a strong moral compass across a variety of issues.  Let’s get him elected.  We think even the polar bears will be happy. To join Cameron’s election campaign, call or email: info@votecameronbrooks.com (865) 387-4408

Debbie Helsley – City Council At-Large Seat B For Sierra Club member Debbie Helsley, the top three environmental issues for Knoxville are threats to green spaces, the growing waste disposal crisis, and climate change.  She sees urban heat islands caused by lack of green space as a major environmental justice issue and wants to increase the tree canopy as a climate resiliency measure.  She is familiar with the development of the Urban Forest Master Plan and looks forward to working with our Urban Forester, and she wants to adopt native plant goals for public properties.  On the waste issue, she supports the Extended Producer Responsibility Bill (HB0550/SB0573) currently working its way through the TN House.  On climate, she supports Knoxville’s current sustainability goals but feels we should go further, especially since the community-wide emission goals are not being met.  She’ll push the Mayor and City Council to research what other cities are doing.  Right now, she looks to public transit expansion and increased walkability as measures to get people out of their cars and reduce climate impacts.  She’s exploring the idea of using federal dollars to create a funding conduit to help new homeowners do energy efficiency upgrades on their houses.   Particularly refreshing to Sierra Club advocates is Debbie’s history of cheerful defiance of billionaires and big corporations as president of Knoxville’s Communication Workers of America Local 3805 for over a decade.  She’s a life-long neighborhood organizer with involvement in the South Woodlawn Neighborhood Association and the South Knoxville Neighborhood & Business Coalition and has served as Secretary of the Knox County Democratic Party.  Environmentalism and racial justice in her view are related issues.  Her campaign statements are in close alignment with the Sierra Club’s in their advocacy for using clean energy goals to create green jobs and economic opportunity for Knoxville’s working people.    Sign up here to join her campaign: https://debbieforknoxville.com/signup

Amelia Parker – City Council At-Large Seat C One of the smartest decisions by the local Sierra Club team was endorsing Amelia back in 2019.  She’s been a close collaborator on our work to save the trees at the Cradle of Country Music Park and continues the work by pushing for a mature tree protection ordinance to hopefully go into effect after the urban forest master plan is completed.  She wants the city’s clean energy policies to benefit poor people and notes the difficulty Knoxville’s energy efficiency upgrade programs have in helping income qualified renters get the benefits, largely because of landlord resistance.  She never loses her focus on reducing climate emissions and is ready to join with community groups and help bring them into the fight when it’s time to hold the administration accountable.  She’s a human rights advocate by profession with a skill set backed by two law degrees.  She organized trash pickups in high school, and at UT she worked with SPEAK as the recycling monitor, spending the night shift next to the collection depot to make sure students didn’t throw trash in the recycling bins.  After graduation, she became the Executive Director of SOCM, one of the Sierra Club’s close allies, and currently works with the Peace Brigade defending environmental advocates from physical harm across the globe.  Anyone who wants a genuine environmentalist in public office who is not afraid to stand up to the City administration needs to vote for Amelia.  She’s the real thing, and community support during her campaign is essential.  Let's get out and help her get elected! Volunteer events are listed here: https://www.mobilize.us/voteameliaparker/ And here’s where you give her money: https://ameliaparkerforcitycouncil.com/donate-2/

Indya Kincannon – Mayor None of Mayor Kincannon’s opponents on the ballot remotely challenge the scope and volume of her actions on environmental policies for Knoxville.  We apologize for the lists, but how else to communicate the sheer volume of her achievements? Mayor’s Climate Council Community Solar at the Public Works Center 19 new public charging ports plus a fast charger coming to downtown•    Launch of Urban Forest Master Plan Vision Zero Action Plan to make roadways safer for bicyclists and pedestrians Knoxville Compost Project Electrifying KAT with 18 new E-buses and the Youth Freedom Pass Sustainability Innovation Fund to make City facilities as energy efficient as possible Green Fleet Policy for City Vehicles, which means no more procurement request for non-emergency ICE vehicles. Solar Panels on Cal Johnson Rec Center and Davidson Rec Center Joined DOE’s Better Buildings Low-Carbon Challenge Funded the SPARK Clean Tech Accelerator for innovative climate and environmental solutions She’s also shown a strong commitment to Environmental Justice: Funded SEEED’s Opportunity Knox to finance income energy efficiency upgrades Prioritized tree planting in urban heat islands Used the City’s EV Charging Suitability Map to put chargers in underserved communities. A second Kincannon administration will maximize grant applications for equity and EJ programs through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act. Indya’s plans for the future: The Urban Forest Master Plan will be finalized this year.  Indya has been a lead partner in creating it and she will champion its implementation. Knoxville’s Sustainability Goals came from the previous administration and Indya’s Climate Council developed a road map for achieving the necessary emission reductions.  Knoxville is well ahead of the 2030 goal for its 50 % reduction in municipal emissions, and in a second term Indya intends to set a bold new interim target and create a regional emissions inventory to help neighbors to set up their own goals. Indya will continue to fund SEEED’s Opportunity Knox program to help households get efficiency upgrades when they make too much to qualify for the Home Uplift program. She’ll help folks get the new federal rebates for efficient appliances and home upgrades. She’ll work with local workforce training providers to build career opportunities in weatherization and related construction trades. And she’ll pursue Competitive Energy Efficiency Conservation Block Grants and other funding sources to reduce city-wide energy demand. Other measures to advance the community-wide climate goals: Requesting City Council approval to implement a C-PACER (Commercial Property Assessed Energy & Resiliency) program through KCDC. Continuing to require EV-readiness for all multi-family and single-family new construction projects receiving Housing & Neighborhood Development funding Exploring incentives to motivate EV- and solar-ready compliance in new and existing private developments. Constant learning and improving is a core value for Mayor Kincannon, as shown by her service on the Steering Committee of Climate Mayors, her participation in the Mayors’ Institute on Pedestrian Safety, and her work with the US Conference of Mayors and the Mayors’ Innovation Project.  Indya is miles ahead of her competitors in environmental policy chops, and the Sierra Club is eager to keep on working with her over the next four years. To help get her elected, contact Sara Fischer, 865-356-6198 or sign up on her website: kincannonformayor.com